Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences
- Part I The Public Cultures of the Physical Sciences After 1800
- Part II Discipline Building in the Sciences: Places, Instruments, Communication
- Part III Chemistry and Physics: Problems Through the Early 1900s
- Part IV Atomic and Molecular Sciences in the Twentieth Century
- 17 Quantum Theory and Atomic Structure, 1900–1927
- 18 Radioactiviy and Nuclerar Physics
- 19 Quantum Field Theory: From QED to the Standard Model
- 20 Chemical Physics and Quantum Chemistry in the Twentieth Century
- 21 Plasmas and Solid-State Science
- 22 Macromolecules: Their Structures and Functions
- Part V Mathematics, Astronomy, and Cosmology Since the Eighteenth Century
- Part VI Problems and Promises at the End of the Twentieth Century
- Index
- References
20 - Chemical Physics and Quantum Chemistry in the Twentieth Century
from Part IV - Atomic and Molecular Sciences in the Twentieth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
By
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences
- Part I The Public Cultures of the Physical Sciences After 1800
- Part II Discipline Building in the Sciences: Places, Instruments, Communication
- Part III Chemistry and Physics: Problems Through the Early 1900s
- Part IV Atomic and Molecular Sciences in the Twentieth Century
- 17 Quantum Theory and Atomic Structure, 1900–1927
- 18 Radioactiviy and Nuclerar Physics
- 19 Quantum Field Theory: From QED to the Standard Model
- 20 Chemical Physics and Quantum Chemistry in the Twentieth Century
- 21 Plasmas and Solid-State Science
- 22 Macromolecules: Their Structures and Functions
- Part V Mathematics, Astronomy, and Cosmology Since the Eighteenth Century
- Part VI Problems and Promises at the End of the Twentieth Century
- Index
- References
Summary
In 1967, Per-Olov Löwdin introduced the new International Journal of Quantum Chemistry in the following manner:
Quantum chemistry deals with the theory of the electronic structure of matter: atoms, molecules, and crystals. It describes this structure in terms of wave patterns, and it uses physical and chemical experience, deep-going mathematical analysis, and high-speed electronic computers to achieve its results. Quantum mechanics has rendered a new conceptual framework for physics and chemistry, and it has led to a unification of the natural sciences which was previously inconceivable; the recent development of molecular biology shows also that the life sciences are now approaching the same basis.
Quantum chemistry is a young field which falls between the historically developed areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology.
In this chapter I address the emergence and establishment of a scientific discipline that has been called at times quantum chemistry, chemical physics, or theoretical chemistry. Understanding why and how atoms combine to form molecules is an intrinsically chemical problem, but it is also a many-body problem, which is handled by means of the integration of Schrödinger’s equation. The heart of the difficulty is that the equation cannot be integrated exactly for even the simplest of all molecules. Devising semiempirical approximate methods became, therefore, a constitutive feature of quantum chemistry, at least in its formative years.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Science , pp. 394 - 412Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
References
, “The Molecular Tradition in Early Quantum Theory,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 22 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Americanization of Molecular Physics,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 23 (1993)Google Scholar
, “Erich Hückel, Pioneer of Organic Quantum Chemistry: Reflections on Theory and Experiment,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 35 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Dynamics of Theory Change in Chemistry: Part I. The Benzene Problem 1865–1945,” and “Dynamics of Theory Change in Chemistry: Part II. The Benzene Problem 1945–1980,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 30 (1999)Google Scholar
, “The Peculiar Notion of Exchange Force. I: Origins in Quantum Mechanics, 1926–1928,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 27 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Recent Developments in Valence Theory,” Pure and Applied Chemistry, 24 (1970), atCrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Quantum Mechanics of Many-Electron Systems,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, A123 (1929), atGoogle Scholar
, “A Report on Homopolar Valency and its Quantum Mechanical Interpretation,” in Chemistry at the (1931) Centenary Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1932), atGoogle Scholar
and , “The Americans, the Germans and the Beginnings of Quantum Chemistry: The Confluence of Diverging Traditions,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 25 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Fritz London: A Scientific Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , “One Face or Many? The Role of Textbooks in Building the New Discipline of Quantum Chemistry” in Communicating Chemistry: Textbooks and Their Audiences 178p–1939, ed. and (Canton, Mass.: Science History Publications, 2000)Google Scholar
, Science, Philosophy and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987)Google Scholar
and , “A History of Physical Chemistry in France,” Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem., 22 (1971)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and , “Wechselwirkung neutraler Atome und homöpolare Bindung nach Quantenmechanik,” Zeitschrift für Physik, 44 (1927)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Theoretical Chemistry in Russia,” Journal of Chemical Education (October 1954)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Die Entstehung und Entwicklung der Quantenchemie in Deutschland,” Mitt. Ges. Deut. Chem. Fachgr. Gesch. Chem., 13 (1997)Google Scholar
, “On the Making of Quantum Chemistry in Germany,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ed., The Pauling Symposium: A Discourse on the Art of Biography (Corval-lis: Special Collections, Oregon State University Libraries, 1996)Google Scholar
et al., “The Present State of the Chemical Structural Theory,” Journal of Chemical Education (January 1952)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Electronic Structures of Polyatomic Molecules and Valence: VI. On the Method of Molecular Orbitals,” Journal of Chemical Physics, 3 (1935)Google Scholar
, “Physical and Biological Modes of Thought in the Chemistry of Lines Pauling,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, From Chemical Philosophy to Theoretical Chemistry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p.Google Scholar
, “Physics and Chemistry: Commensurate or Incommensurate Sciences?” in The Invention of Physical Science (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Chemical Translators: Pauling, Wheland and their Strategies for Teaching the Theory of Resonance,” British Journal for the History of Science, 32 (1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Nature of the Chemical Bond: Application of Results Obtained from the Quantum Mechanics and from a Theory of Paramagnetic Susceptibility to the Structure of Molecules,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 53 (1931)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Value of Rough Quantum Mechanical Calculations,” Foundations of Physics, 22 (1992), atCrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Place of Chemistry in the Integration of the Sciences,” Main Currents in Modern Thought, 7 (1950)Google Scholar
, “The Application of Quantum Mechanics to the Structure of the Hydrogen Molecule and Hydrogen-Molecule Ion and to Related Problems,” Chemical Reviews, 5 (1928)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Recent Work in the History and Philosophy of Chemistry,” Perspectives on Science, 6 (1998)Google Scholar
, “The Young John Clarke Slater and the Development of Quantum Chemistry,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 20 (1990)Google Scholar
, “Shelter Island, Pocono, and Oldstone: The Emergence of American Quantum Electrodynamics after World War II,” Osiris, 2 (1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling: The Making of a Science in America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990)Google Scholar
and , “Different Legacies and Common Aims,” in Conceptual Perspectives in Quantum Chemistry, ed. and (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997)Google Scholar
and , “Quantum Chemistry qua Applied Mathematics: The Contributions of Charles Alfred Coulson (1910–1974),” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 29 (1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , “Issues in the History of Theoretical and Quantum Chemistry,” in Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century: BridgingBoundaries (Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2001)Google Scholar
and , “Quantum Chemistry in Great Britain: Developing a Mathematical Framework for Quantum Chemistry,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , “About a Machist Theory in Chemistry and its Propangadists,” Journal of Chemical Education (January 1952)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 4
- Cited by